Frost stood on top of the watchtower in front of the gate of the outpost. His hand trembled as he was holding on to his gun.

We're fucked.

He thought. The rumbles coming from the ground haven't stopped, but it was normal for it to go on for so long. Outside of the door, two teams of Border Chasers are fighting against three Star Creatures. If it wasn't for them, the entire outpost might have already been in ruins.

This was a S.D.A faculty that was close to the Rift Sea. It used to belong to part of the Fenix Harbor. In order to execute the plan on wiping out the Death Rim, the S.D.A established multiple strongholds like the Wall of Dawn. With those strongholds as the starting point, they installed smaller outposts further inside of the Rim as the operation base for the Border Chasers.

The Fenix Harbor was long already abandoned before the S.D.A took over. Not only because of that the area was inside of the Death Rim, but also that before the Star Creatures in the sea were eliminated, it wasn't safe to travel across the Rift Sea with boats. Star Creatures have been proven to be amphibious. They could survive under water. Sometimes, they would even drag the boats from the surface down.

Thankfully, the Star Creatures in the sea rarely aim for the people on the shore or the buildings. On the other hand, this gratifying fact wasn't much of help for Frost's situation at the moment. He glanced at the old lighthouse afar. That conspicuous building has also become a watchtower the S.D.A uses to monitor the sea. Although this area of the sea hasn't had signs of Star Creature activity, their fate was still destined even if the entire outpost was located far from the shore.

Frost cursed. He held up his gun and aimed it at the ginormous figure outside. He really hadn't had much experience in shooting, not to mention that the gun in his hand wasn't technically real. It was something more like an injector, a tranquiliser gun. It was designed to shoot mercury bullets.

The mercury would penetrate through the Star Creature's vessels, then into their thick, impenetrable bodies. At last, poison those hulks to death. Unfortunately, this kind of method has a fairly low success rate as well as a lot of drawbacks. For instance, certain individuals could better metabolize heavy metal, or they wouldn't be affected at all. However, the biggest disadvantage was that mercury would contaminate the Shelling Bubble inside of the Star Creature, making them unable to use it.

Therefore, the S.D.A did not encourage using this method against the Star Creatures unless it was an emergency.

Now’s definitely an emergency!

Frost thought, although he wasn't that confident in his shooting skills. He tried to aim for one of the tentacles of a Star Creature. He sucked in a breath, held it, then pulled the trigger.

Shit, I missed!

The man cursed under his breath. He watched as his bullet bounced off from the surface of the tentacle.

That Star Creature obviously did not notice the mercury bullet Frost had shot. However, since its tentacles were waving around frantically, and the fact that Star Creature's muscles tighten so long as they use any force. Even though their muscles were exposed, if it wasn't the right angle, it would be practically impossible to penetrate through.

Frost picked up another mercury bullet, reloading once again. But just when he had lifted his gun, he immediately saw two Chasers get swatted away by the tentacle of a Star Creature.

12 Chasers against three Star Creatures. There were six people per Chaser team. However, even if they were well-prepared. There was no guarantee that six of them would leave unscathed against one single Star Creature together. Not to mention under a situation where they were short on men.

At the end of the day, they could only blame the ones who damaged the electromagnetic waves emitters. Frost cursed deep in his heart. He knew that the S.D.A weren't the only 'livings' in the Death Rim. This wasn't a big secret anyway.

Since it was isolated from the S.D.A's air drop protection net, the entire rim was filled with wandering Star Creatures. On a certain degree, this also made the area somewhere beyond the law that jurisdiction didn't exist. A land of chances and opportunities that was filled with historical remains and danger. The Death Rim could possibly be the scavengers and bandits' favorite spot, provided that they're not afraid of death.

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Frost had heard the rumors for a while now. They call themselves the Wasteland Shepherd. They are the scavenging minorities that dared to pull their tricks on the S.D.A. Of course, they try to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible. Normally, they would damage some essential facilities of the S.D.A and steal the components. Like the water well, fuel line, generator. Like the electromagnetic waves emitters.

Frost suspected that the emitter near them was damaged the night prior. As soon as those emitters stopped sending out luring signals, the Star Creatures would then start attacking the outposts.

It's too late anyway...

He held on to the gun tightly but didn't pull the trigger.

What good would it be?

He asked himself, just as another Shell Wielder was swept up by a tentacle and thrown to another side.

Those brave Chasers had bravely fulfilled their obligation, but they were heavily outnumbered.

Frost looked at the tragedy displaying in front of him. It was as if he was witnessing doomsday itself right in front of him. An apocalypse where he was included in.

His hands started trembling again. But somehow, there seemed to be some kind of force that was still constraining and supporting him. It stopped him from dropping his weapon and running away. It stopped him from breaking down. Perhaps it was the S.D.A uniform on him, or perhaps it was all training that he did. Perhaps it was his frail conscience.

Suddenly, a loud booming noise came from the sky far away.

Backup's here?

Frost eagerly lifted his head as his eyes widened. What was devastating was that he was only partially correct.

It was indeed a backup crew that was speedily approaching the ground from the sky. However, it wasn't their back up. A blaring commotion came from the falling fireball. It was evidently another Star Creature that was landing on Sheer.

Frost's eyes never left the fireball. He watched as it crashed on a hill nearby.

It's over.

He made his final statement.

A fourth Star Creature.

The S.D.A wouldn't be able to drop the Chasers into the Rim, so it was obvious that the Star Creature would approach in no time. It would join the battle, or more like join in its companions for a game of slaughter.

The man standing on the tower slowly lowered his gun-holding hand. At that moment, he had completely lost all hope.

What was surprising was that also at that moment, Frost heard something else. A sound that he had been ignoring since the landing of the Star Creature. The sound wasn’t from heaven, it was from...

the skyline?

An S.D.A gyroplane appeared from the end of the horizon. It approached the outpost with incredible speed.

On the hill, the Star Creature had also started moving. Giant tentacles extended from its black shell, as if it was stretching from its long trip of flight. It started shaking its body in an aggressive way, then let out a loud roar at the object that just flew over on top of him.

Frost's facial expression was priceless, but at the same time he had been sweating blood. Thankfully, the gyroplane was at a better altitude, or else it might have just gotten torn into pieces by those ginormous tentacles.

The plane started declining, as it hovered above the ground.

Oh no.

Despair started flooding over Frost once again, since he suddenly remembered that the landing pad was located outside of the outpost. This means that the pilot risked getting attacked while landing, or they would have to order the passengers to parachute mid-flight. No matter how many Chasers it carried that were coming to back up, under the circumstances where there were three Star Creatures waiting for their prey, Frost couldn't help but wonder which method would have a worse outcome.

Just as he was watching the tiny glimmering hope that had just appeared above the sky from the outpose, a smaller, more vague figure dropped straight down from the gyroplane.

It was a dark and determined silhouette.

It was a person.